Perfect Blue blends psychological thriller with body horror and social commentary to show the life of a budding actress who is grappling with a career change. While Mima’s only enemy should have been her own developing skills like other newbies, it turns out the actual villains are her own manager and a stalker of a fan.

Mima questions her own sanity and starts to mix up what is real and what isn’t. The story makes viewers believe that Mima is the one killing others, when it’s actually Rumi. Nonetheless, let’s take a dive into the ending of Perfect Blue.

Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue Movie Ending Explained

Mima’s struggle against Rumi symbolizes her struggle against herself | Credits: Madhouse

After Mima survives the traumatizing encounter with Me-Mania, who tries to r-pe her, she is taken away by Rumi. However, when Mima wakes up, she realizes that she isn’t actually in her apartment, though the room is a perfect reenactment of her living quarters back when she used to be an idol.

As she calls for Rumi, the manager comes out in an idol costume, fully believing that she is in fact the “real Mima,” the idol and not the actress who commits to risque roles. Rumi turns violent pretty soon, and Mima realizes that Rumi is the one who egged on Me-Mania and also the one who is responsible for all the murders.

A wild chase scene takes place as Rumi is convinced that she cannot let the “fake Mima” live. Rumi is ready to replace Mima completely, and in her mind, she has already taken on the persona of an idol. However, she trips and impales herself on shards of broken glass before mistaking the lights of an oncoming truck for the spotlight and welcoming it with open arms.

Mima saves Rumi at the last minute, and the scene cuts to the future. Rumi has been placed at an institution due to her behavior, and her new personality has taken over, with only glimpses of the real Rumi left. Mima is seen visiting Rumi and only looking at her from far away. She admits that Rumi is the reason she is where she stands.

It is possible that Mima still admires Rumi as a manager and how she always cared about the idol’s feelings rather than the money-making decisions of the company. Another implication is that it might have been Rumi’s machinations that led Mima to discover the actor within herself. Or maybe the incident with Rumi is what shot Mima to the spotlight even more. No matter what, Mima has become a famous actress, and she has reclaimed herself as the real one.

Free Will and Mima’s Illusion of Freedom in Perfect Blue

Mima’s decisions are not only made by her | Credits: Madhouse

Is Mima liberated by the end of Perfect Blue? This question is a complex one because Mima is both freed and remains in shackles. Of course, she is freed from the nightmare that she faced because of Rumi and Me-Mania. She will never have to deal with those two anymore since one is dead and the other is in an institution.

However, she will never be free from the thousands of other people who are willing to do the same, if not worse, and are simply a trigger away from bringing Mima down the same spiral. As Mima has grown as an actress, she has created a bigger fanbase, and a bigger fanbase means a bigger percentage of stalkers and obsessed creeps.

Perfect Blue discusses the topic of how fans can struggle to accept the idea of their idols changing over time. So what if Mima makes a different career decision down the road? What if being an actor doesn’t suit her at one point? Will another obsessed fan come out of the shadows to traumatize her?

At the same time, is liberation only about being free from stalkers? What about Mima’s personal freedom? Mima was first bound by the image of a pure idol. She could not tarnish her reputation, no matter what, if she wanted to stay a supposedly innocent idol. Thus, when she finally broke free of it, she suffered severely due to her new risque decisions.

She did not actually want to do the risque scenes or the photoshoots, but she had to just because she was a newbie with no options. So, ultimately, is she really free to do what she wants? Of course, as a famous actress, she must have more opinions on her choices. Yet, the life of a celebrity is a fragile one; one that is shaped by the opinions of her onlookers than herself.

The movie presents how, though Mima has free will theoretically, in real life, her decisions are affected by dozens of others. She might not want to be a cutesy idol forever, but the male gaze wants to see her that way. The idol industry wants her to remain “pure” for as long as possible. It’s not uncommon to see real-life idols who lose themselves in this pressure.

Once Mima thinks that she can graduate from Cham and leave everything behind, she is met with the male gaze again. This time, it’s more malicious. This time, she is stripped, her body is s-xualized, and the scriptwriter adds scenes that can be traumatizing for anyone, much less a rookie. In the fake r-pe scene, the takes are taken multiple times without any regard for what Mima might be feeling in such a vulnerable position.

Mima’s idol image was a manufactured one, but so were her risque roles. Ultimately, she has been fighting against external control all her life, whether it is obsessed fans like Me-Mania or the photographer who specializes in stripping his models.

Perfect Blue Is Even More Relevant Today After 27 Years

It has been around 27 years since Perfect Blue was released in 1998. Today, the world is more obsessed with celebrities, beauty standards, the idea of the perfect idol, and more. There are unnamed rules that affect the lives of those in the limelight. Yet, Satoshi Kon’s 1997 movie portrayed the dangers of not only the toxic idol culture but also how women are overly s-xualized in every field of work.

Yet another theme that Perfect Blue explored is how the Internet can meddle with privacy. Today, data leaks, selling private information to agencies, and a bunch of other privacy-related issues have become a part of daily life. In fact, people have almost become desensitized to it. However, Perfect Blue shows how social media can be used to mentally affect another person.

Mima’s Room became a central idea in the story, and the blog posted every inner thought that Mima ever had. The blog was bang on every time because it was created by Rumi, who knew everything about Mima and her decisions, and was also helped by Mima’s stalker.

The movie depicts how fans can project their own desires onto their favorite idol. In today’s age, obsessive fan culture has also become much more toxic. In fact, stalkers are joined by paparazzi to make sure that a person cannot get a single private moment in their lives before thinking a thousand times about whether they are being watched.

All in all, Perfect Blue is a perfect representation of an idol’s desire to grow out of her role and an obsessive fan’s desire to cling to the past image of the idol that they once fell in love with.

Here is a table with the ratings of Perfect Blue:

Rating SiteRatings for Perfect BlueIMDB8.0/10MyAnimeList8.55/10Rotten Tomatoes84%

What do you think about Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue? Let us know in the comments below.

The Perfect Blue movie is currently available to rent on Amazon and is not available to stream.
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